---

College basketball player Erica Woods is making headlines for all the right reasons.

Watched by thousands of television viewers, the 18-year-old achieved yet another milestone last weekend when she poured in a career-high 11 points to help Marshall University to its first win over conference powerhouse University of Southern Mississippi.

It was a performance that perhaps characterized the freshman's seamless transition from high school to NCAA basketball.

Woods said: "I am definitely a lot more confident. The game is a lot faster and completely different to playing at the high school level.

"In college (basketball) you basically have a role to play on the team while back in high school I was more a do-it-all kind of player. Now that I have people who are of my calibre and even better... everybody around me and who I play against makes me better. I can definitely say I've transformed from a high school player into a college player."

That Woods' college career has virtually shot into orbit in a relatively short period of time owes much to a hard work ethic towards training.

She explained: "It's a battle everyday in practice. We have to fight for our spots and have to also fight for playing time and so whoever performs best in practice is the person who ends up playing.

"This past week we practiced very hard doing various competition drills like one-on-ones and stuff like that.

"I put my best foot forward and was basically one of the top players and that's why I played a lot of minutes (27). What you put in is basically what you get out. I have put in the hard work and now I am beginning to be rewarded."

Woods went five for 10 from the field en route to scoring in double digits for the first time at college level. To say it was a relief to reach the milestone is perhaps a gross understatement.

For added measure, she also had three steals, a career-best equalling six rebounds and an assist to the stats column. But it was breaking the nine-point jinx that delighted Woods most.

She said: "I was kind of stuck on nine points but I am definitely happy now to finally get into double digits. Now that that is over with hopefully I can continue to help my team win because I am not really concerned about personal stats."

With the world's eyes gazed upon her, one might have expected the Bermudian to be a little nervous on the big stage... Instead she played with a maturity belying her freshman status.

She added: "I always put my best foot forward regardless. Usually whenever people worry about whose watching they don't necessarily play well. I just went out there with the intent on winning and playing as hard as I can possibly play to help my teammates in any shape or form - and that's what I did and we came up with the win."

The Thundering Herd currently boasts an overall record of 10-5 and are optimistic of clinching the conference title this year.

Woods added: "We believe this is the year for us and so hopefully we can continue to win and go to become conference champions."

As for Sunday's see-saw battle with University of Southern Mississippi, Woods admitted the electrifying pace of the match was not for faint hearted.

She admitted: "It was a very fast paced game. They have some of the most dominant players in the conference. The experience was kind of overwhelming, but at the same time exciting."[[In-content Ad]]

---